On November 9, representatives from the City of Leesburg, Dewberry Engineers, St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), and Wharton-Smith joined together to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Leesburg Turnpike Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrades Phase II Project. See pictures and video.

The $39.9 million project includes increasing the facility’s capacity to six million gallons daily, rehabilitating the pretreatment structure, expanding the chlorine contact chamber, three new generators, and more.

“This improvement sets us [up], probably for the next ten years if we keep going at the pace that we’re currently going, so that’s a big deal for us,” said Al Minner, Leesburg City Manager.

Dewberry and their partners at Carollo, Wekiva, and EMI designed the facility, and Wharton-Smith will build it. The continued strong relationship between this team, the City of Leesburg, and the SJRWMD has helped power this next phase of the improvements forward. 

“It’s not just an example of a project expansion. It’s an example of how the city is working together and leveraging partnerships and making sure that they are accommodating growth [not only] inside the city but also with their neighboring region,” noted Devan White from Dewberry. “Through that, they have been able to leverage and optimize their shared resources, provide customers with beneficial reclaimed water use, and offset [use of] our precious potable water supply. I think that’s something everybody here can get excited about.” 

“Just under three years ago, we were out here doing the groundbreaking for phase one, and we’ve been through the construction on phase one, the design on phase two, and now we’re breaking ground,” said Erik Anderson, Director of Collaborative Delivery Water/Wastewater. “I’ve been through other projects where we haven’t even gotten through design in three years. The fact that we’re already back out here celebrating this groundbreaking milestone is a real testament to the team, the cohesiveness, and, more importantly, the trust the city has put in Wharton Smith and Dewberry.”

​​​The expected completion date for the Turnpike Facility is December 2025.

A video put together by Lakefront TV can be viewed here.